The Star Beast by Robert A. Heinlein - The Heinlein Prize

Chapter Tests / Quizzes:
Personally, I do not care for many published textbook tests/quizzes, as I often find
them to not fit what we have actually discussed in class, or what the students have
themselves found in the text. I therefore tend to make up my own quizzes and tests, and I
also rely heavily on questions about relationships, more than I do questions about specific
details of the books. I teach very poor readers, and I am far more concerned that they
understand what is happening between the characters, than I am in what color shirt a
particular character is wearing, or some other pithy little detail that teachers dealing with
very good readers might ask to make sure that their students have read. I check to make
sure they’ve read by insisting that they answer the following kinds of questions using
specific details (and by always asking a question about the end of the chapter), but I
allow them to choose the details themselves to fit the question. I train them to answer
questions this way by giving them several sample questions, then answering them on the
board, using their input to craft a model response. I hope that the following questions are
useful for quizzes and tests, as well as for classroom discussion. Again, I expect students
to use specific details from the novel to answer these questions. If the extra credit
questions seem appropriate for your class, you can add them to the quizzes, or use them
as extra credit homework assignments.
CHAPTER ONE:
1. Why is Lummox bored?
2. What happens to the ant hill?
3. Why does Lummox think it’s okay to eat the “ownerless” rose bushes?
4. What happens to Lummox after he escapes?
5. What does Betty counsel John Thomas to do?
6. What does John Thomas worry Lummox might have eaten?
CHAPTER TWO:
1. Who is really in charge in the Department for Spatial Affairs? How do you know
that?
2. What is Mr. Kiku afraid of?
3. Who is put in charge of Lummox’s case?
CHAPTER THREE: